LINGAYEN – A noted historian in Pangasinan has proposed the conversion of the whole town of Lingayen as a heritage site.

Restituto Basa, author of several history books on Pangasinan, is also calling for the renaming of existing landmarks in Pangasinan after those who have distinguished themselves in the history of the province.

In proposing that the whole town of Lingayen be made as heritage site, Basa has sought the restoration and preservation of the old building beside the Lingayen Municipal Hall, which was the first provincial building in Pangasinan under Spanish rule.

At the back of that building is a street called Barraca, so called because it was the street or “camino” that led to the Spanish barracks in the past.

Meanwhile, Basa said he will also ask the provincial board to rename the Kalantiao building, one of the earliest buildings in the provincial capitol compound, after Don Manuel Facundo de Quintos, the great grandfather of Dr. Jose Rizal.

Quintos was a lawyer and gobernadorcillo of the old sangley community of Lingayen in the 1850s whose daughter Brigida, married Don Lorenzo Alberto Alonso of Laguna, parents of Teodora de Quintos Alonso who, in turn, married Francisco Mercado y Rizal, the parents of the national hero and his siblings.

Basa said Kalantiao, who was once a national lawmaker, was from Iloilo and hardly had any historical significance to the Pangasinenses.

He also proposed the renaming of the Urduja house, the official residence of the Pangasinan governor, either after the late Juan DG. Rodriquez from Mabini who built the structure sometime in the early 1950s or after the late Geronima Pecson, the first woman Filipino senator from Lingayen.

Also sought by Basa to be renamed is the Domalandan Bridge, currently being reconstructed and is set to be completed in December, in honor of the hardly known native woman Kabontatala, who was taken as a wife by the Chinese pirate Limahong when he made a sojourn in Pangasinan in 1575 after an unsuccessful siege of Manila.

They bore a son they named Quimson (precious son), believed to be the ancestor of two men who served as governors of Pangasinan, namely: Sofronio Quimson and Francisco Quimson Duque.

Kabontatala was a daughter of the village chieftain of Domalandan whom Limahong befriended when they retreated from Manila, Basa said. It was this chieftain who showed the way through swamps and rainforests so that Limahong and his men could cut across to the sea.

The river where the present Domalandan bridge spans across used to be only three meters wide was dug up by Limahong and his men. They used the channel on August 4, 1575 as their escape route to the sea from the pursuing Spanish force of Captain Juan de Salcedo.

Basa noted that the provincial board already renamed the upcoming capitol parks in front of the provincial capitol building after the late Gov. Aguedo F. Agbayani, father of incumbent Governor Victor Agbayani.

Share your Comments or Reactions

comments

Powered by Facebook Comments